To celebrate American Diabetes Month, Pocahontas Memorial Hospital Diabetes Support Group hosted a Healthy Cooking Night on November 18. Those in attendance received dozens of new recipes to try, sampled some healthy desserts prepared by PMH staff, and came away with tips and tricks for healthier holiday eating. The event was made possible with the help of the Snowshoe Foundation.

Great tips to make holiday cooking and baking healthier include:

• Substitute evaporated skim milk for cream;
• Substitute light cream cheese for regular;
• Substitute non-fat plain yogurt for sour cream;
• Omit the butter when preparing packaged or homemade stuffing (you’ll never miss it!);
• Use half the butter you normally do in mashed potatoes;
• Use egg whites in place of whole eggs.

If you have diabetes, the key is to plan ahead and count your carbs. Foods high in carbohydrates like bread, tortillas, rice, crackers, cereal, fruit, potatoes, corn, and sweets raise your blood glucose levels the most. If you choose to eat a small serving of dessert, cut back on the other carb-containing foods at the same meal.

This week may wrap up our American Diabetes Month activities, but help for diabetes is always available at Pocahontas Memorial Hospital. Check out our Diabetes Educationpage or contact Terry Wagner at 304-799-1032.

The www.diabetes.org website is a great resource for tasty recipes that are lower in carbs or sugar – like the recipe included below. These no-bake peanut butter balls were the hit of the Healthy Cooking night!

No-Bake Peanut Butter & Chocolate Balls

Yield: 24

Ingredients:

1/3 cup light sugar & Stevia blend (or similar)

1/3 cup skim milk

½ cup peanut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups rolled oats

3 tablespoons mini chocolate chips

Instructions:

In a small saucepan, combine sugar and milk over medium heat. Stir well and bring to a boil for 1 ½ minutes. Stir in peanut butter and vanilla. Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients. Stir well. Scoop out mixture into 1 tablespoon balls and place on waxed paper. Let cool and refrigerate.

2 balls = 75 calories, 9 grams carb, 4 grams sugar, 1 gram dietary fiber